Don’t expect many lulls in the play when the Vancouver Stealth take to the floor for the upcoming National Lacrosse League season.
“I wanted to make conditioning a priority. From minute one, I wanted the guys to know this was going to be a tough camp,” said Stealth head coach Jamie Batley.
“I was extremely pleased with how the guys reacted and after the tough decisions we made this past weekend, I am confident we have a team that is capable of playing the fast-paced tempo we plan to play.”
The Stealth unveiled their roster on Monday morning, ahead of the NLL deadline.
Vancouver’s 20-player roster features 11 defencemen/transition players, seven forwards, and two goaltenders. They also have four players on the practice roster and an additional four on injured reserve.
Altogether — including a try-out camp ahead of training camp — general manager Doug Locker figures the coaching staff and management team looked at in excess of 60 players.
“I don’t know if you are ever done, but it gives you an opportunity to put 24 names in and then you start again,” Locker said.
This year’s squad — which looks to make the post-season for the first time since moving to the Langley Events Centre for the 2014 season — is better designed to suit Batley’s vision.
The coach took over midway last season.
“It is no secret, he likes to run and transition and play an aggressive style, defensively as well as offensively, and to run that style you need to be in very, very good shape, to run that for 60 minutes.” Locker said, adding this was the most demanding training camp he has seen since joining the team back when they were still in San Jose.
“That was his message to the team all the way back to the start of the summer — if you weren’t going to be able to play at his pace in his system, we were going to have to let you go so we had to make some roster decisions based on pure fitness.”
Up front, Vancouver returns their all-time leading scorer Rhys Duch, who is coming off a 48-goal, 111-point season. He is joined by Logan Schuss (the 2014 NLL rookie of the year) and Corey Small. Schuss was second on the team in points last year with 86 while Small was second in goals at 37.
They are joined by 2015 NLL teammate of the year award winner — and a finalist for the same award in 2016 — Joel McCready (19 goals, 48 assists), Jordan Durston (17 goals, 38 points) and Keegan Bal (two goals, 16 points). Bal suited up in just eight games last year.
The only newcomer with the bunch is free agent Tommy McKee.
Garrett Billings (13 goals, 60 points) begins the season on injured reserve, as do free agent pickup Cory Conway and James Rahe, the Stealth’s top draft pick in September.
Transition player Jarret Toll is also on injured reserve but Locker said all four should be available, perhaps as early as week two.
John Lintz and Peter McFetridge headline the new bodies among the team’s defence, which returns Matt Beers, Chris O’Dougherty, Curtis Hodgson, Ian Hawksbee and Ryan Wagner.
Wagner has one year of NLL experience while the other six have a combined 50 years in the league under their belts.
Travis Cornwall, Justin Salt and Thomas Hoggarth return in the transition role and they are joined by rookie free agent Brendan Fowler, who will serve as a face-off specialist.
In goal, the Stealth are going with the tandem of Tyler Richards and Tye Belanger.
Last year’s back-up goalie, Eric Penney, is on the team’s practice roster, along with Evan Messenger (forward), Brandon Clelland (transition) and Justin Goodwin (defence/transition). Penney and Clelland have two years of NLL experience while Messenger and Goodwin are rookies.